rain miles count double

On Sunday, the Scotland On Sunday reported that the Scottish government was “in talks over tax on cyclists”, after the question was asked in a draft of the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS) released for public consultation. It asks, “Should all road users pay road tax? If so, how much should it be for cyclists and how could it be enforced?”.

Politicians, environmental and cycling groups, bloggers and even the Scotland On Sunday itself have understandably been quick to speak out against the idea, especially some of those who were involved in the drafting of the CAPS document as they claim the tax question was added after they saw the final draft.

Gary Bell of Spokes, a Scottish cycling group, said:

Many cycle owners already pay road tax because they own a car. What about the practicalities? Are you trying to collect road tax from three-year-olds on tricycles? This document is trying to increase the number of cyclists and here they are constructing a barrier to prevent people getting a bicycle. It is utterly laughable.

Peter Hayman, CAPS board member and the Scottish representative of the Cyclists Touring Club, said:

It would be completely impractical. Something like that would cost ten times the total investment in cycling to administer.

I agree, of course. The idea of taxing cyclists is absurd for myriad reasons, and I’ve yet to hear an argument in favour of implementing such a plan that boils down to something other than “wah wah wah it’s not fair” from certain sections of the motoring community.

Still though, someone thought it worthwhile to ask the question. It’s been suggested that the issue was raised just to have it ruled out. It could be a cash-strapped government gauging public opinion on a controversial revenue raising idea in a controlled and politically safe manner. It could just be that one of the civil servants involved in drafting the plan belongs to the its-not-fair fraternity and saw an opportunity to advance their personal agenda. Someone knows, but we’ll never find out for sure.

The final line in the article quotes a government spokesperson as saying “Scottish ministers have no plans to charge cyclists for using the roads in Scotland” (thereby rendering the whole article a meaningless, if successful, attention seeking exercise for the paper), so it seems that for now at least the ministers realise the drawbacks of a cycling tax and there’s nothing for Scottish cyclists to be worried about.

But should the debate not be had anyway? Would it not be a significant win for cycling in general if the Scottish (or any) government looked into the question of a cycling tax and decided, as they must surely do, that it’s a stupid idea? I’d like to think such a debate would silence the its-not-fair crowd once and for all, but, like a decent Scottish summer, that’s probably just wishful thinking.